NY, Washington protesters brave rare early snow

Anti-Wall Street protesters hunkered down at encampments in New York and Washington Saturday as they faced their first winter weather test, with a rare early snowstorm hitting the US east coast.

“Snow, what snow? I’ve got a country to worry about,” read a sign at New York’s Zuccotti Park held by a girl as snow and sleet pelted downtown Manhattan, where demonstrators have gathered to protest and call for financial reform since September 17.

The rare early snowfall in New York — only the fourth time in 135 years that flakes fell in the city in October, according to the National Weather Service — did not appear to dissuade the protesters living in tents.

“We will put some salt. There are people giving information about low temperatures and camping,” protester Brian Majdanik, 27, told AFP.

The busy kitchen at the Zuccotti Park camp churned out steaming soup and hot drinks for shivering residents.

Close by, at New York’s City Hall, a small diverse crowd of public transport workers and immigrant rights activists gathered to show support for the Occupy Wall Street movement, listening to speakers as police looked on.